


Mission Of Love

by mrpicard



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Alien Planet, Canon Rewrite, Falling In Love, Iyaarans, Iyar, Kissing, Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Rewrite, Voval - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 09:12:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15021392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrpicard/pseuds/mrpicard
Summary: Ambassador Voval wants to experience love.





	Mission Of Love

**Author's Note:**

> First of all: This is a re-write of the second half of the episode "Liaisons" - it won't make any sense to you if you haven't watched it since this fic starts somewhere around the middle of the episode. 
> 
> Secondly: I have always been fascinated by the fact that Jean-Luc doesn't even blink when he realizes that Anna is actually Voval and never even mentions it or makes a fuss about it (I love my Pansexual Picard headcanon okay), and yet I have also always been frustrated by the episode not taking things where I think it should have taken them. So... here's the version I would have written and aired if I had been in charge of TNG.

 

 

"So you're not attracted to me," Anna concluded.

"I think that's a little premature," Picard replied. "We hardly know anything about each other."

"I understand - and I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable."

"No harm done; it takes a lot more to make me feel uncomfortable. A confession like the one you just gave certainly doesn't qualify, even though I still think it happened to be rather hasty."

"Why do you think that?"  
  
"It normally takes people a little longer to fall in love."  
  
"There _are_ exceptions."

"Yes, of course. But I don't think this is one."

"Because we hardly know anything about each other."  
  
Picard leaned against the table. "Partly, yes. But also because I don't know what to make of all this."  
  
Anna frowned. "What do you mean?"  
  
"This is hardly an environment for falling in love - you crashed here and have been alone on this planet for seven years, and yet, despite all that, escaping does not seem to be the first thought on your mind. At least that's the impression I'm getting."  
  
"Why do you say that?"  
  
Picard folded his arms across his chest. "Because I think you have quite a few secrets that seem more important to you than getting off this planet."

"Is having secrets bad?"

"Well, it won't help with the 'we hardly know each other' issue."  
  
"So... secrets prevent you from falling in love with someone?"  
  
"They can be intriguing, but not if there are so many of them that I feel like as I'm being left in the dark."  
  
Anna sat down and then thought for a moment before she spoke again. "You don't trust me."  
  
Picard slowly put his hand on the device Anna had attached to his side. "To be honest, no. And this doesn't exactly inspire me to change my mind on that." He closed his hand around the device - and then ripped it off his skin.  
  
"What are you _doing_?!"  
  
Picard slammed his hand against the bruise. "No pain. It appears I don't have any broken ribs after all."  
  
Anna stared at him.  
  
"What is really going on here, Anna?"  
  
"Will telling you the truth make you love me?"  
  
"I don't think so," Picard said dryly.  
  
"Then I have failed."  
  
"Failed?"  
  
"To do what I was sent to do." Anna raised her hand, touched her necklace and switched off the projection field, revealing her true self: Voval.  
  
The captain stared at the shuttle pilot. " _Voval_?"  
  
"Ambassador Voval, actually."

" _Ambassador_?" Picard echoed, dumbfounded.

"Yes. I'm Ambassador Voval, and I was sent on a mission to study human intimacy, specifically the concept you call love."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Several years ago, we discovered the remains of the Terellian freighter on this planet. The ship contained logs made by a single survivor, a human woman who had lived alone here for seven years until a human male crashed on this planet. He was injured, she nursed him back to health and they fell in love. In her logs, she described many emotional concepts we found difficult to understand. So, I was sent to experience them."  
  
Picard ran his hand across his face but said nothing.  
  
"Is something wrong?" Voval asked.  
  
"Your curiosity is honorable, but your approach... well, let's say it severely lacked something a lot of humans value when it comes to falling in love."  
  
"What would that be?"  
  
"Honesty. I could sense something wasn't right about Anna's story. Unlike the woman whose logs you found, Anna had not really crashed, after all- you only made it _look_ like as if she had. Lies were told, and lies are not what humans like to base love on - some might even say a love that's based on lies is not a love at all."  
  
"So... I should not have done any of this."  
  
"Probably not, no."  
  
"What _should_ I have done?"  
  
"As simple as it sounds, the best way would have been to show me the woman's logs and ask me directly about the concept of love."  
  
"But that wouldn't have made me _experience_ it," Voval objected.  
  
"I'm afraid your original idea wouldn't have led to you accomplishing your mission objective anyway."  
  
Voval frowned. "Why not?"  
  
"The feeling of love takes time to grow, time we would not have had here since the Enterprise would have found us sooner rather than later. And until that happened, I would have been too preoccupied to even think about falling in love with Anna."  
  
Voval leaned back. "I see. You are saying it's impossible to experience love in a short term setting."  
  
"That's how it is for _me_ ," Picard said. "You might have had different results with someone else, but for me personally, falling in love tends to take time. The fact that Anna also appeared to be hiding something didn't help either."  
  
"Because you value honesty."  
  
"Yes." Picard put the device he had still been holding on the table behind him. "Am I correct in assuming the shuttle damage is not as bad as it seems...?"  
  
Voval nodded. "That is correct. We can leave at any time."  
  
"I was told you would take me to your homeworld...?"  
  
"Yes, but we never really had any official plans for that since my real mission was to crash the shuttle and experience love with you."  
  
"Of course."  
  
"You seem sad about this," Voval observed.  
  
"I wasn't lying when I told you I was looking forward to visiting the unique crystal formations on your homeworld."  
  
"You're interested in geology?"  
  
"A little, yes."  
  
"This planet has fascinating crystal formations as well. In fact, they're somewhat similar to the ones on Iyar."  
  
"But the weather -"  
  
"Don't worry, it isn't this bad in other regions. If you're interested, we could take the shuttle and visit the crystal formations before we leave for your ship."  
  
Picard's face lit up. "That would be wonderful!"

"As you wish, Captain."

 

**************

 

 

"This is spectacular!" Picard breathed and ran his hand over the surface of a gigantic glittering crystal whose colors looked different from every angle.  
  
"I'm pleased you like it," Voval said from behind. "We Iyaarans have very little enthusiasm for our environment - it's very interesting to see that humans appear to take the opposite approach."  
  
"We tend to enjoy opening ourselves to our environments and the unknown in general," Picard confirmed.  
  
"Is that why you wanted to come here with me despite the things I did to you?" Voval asked.  
  
Picard turned around and looked at him. "Yes - because I realize that you're from an alien culture that has never had any contact with humans before. It was all a misunderstanding - granted, one of galactic proportions, but still a misunderstanding nonetheless."  
  
Voval fell silent for a few seconds before he continued the conversation. "May I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Would it be wrong for me to tell you that I enjoyed kissing you?"  
  
"I suppose not, even though you didn't exactly ask for my consent before you kissed me."  
  
"Hmm." Voval briefly looked back at the crystal. "Do you think you would have enjoyed kissing me if I had been honest with you about who I really am and also asked for your consent?"  
  
Picard cleared his throat. "Perhaps, yes."

Voval sighed. "You're so right - I really should simply have asked you about the concept of love. I might not have been able to experience it, but I _would_   still have learned a lot."

"Sometimes you don't need to experience something directly to learn a lot about it," Picard remarked.  
  
"What if 'asking' and 'experiencing' are combined, however?" Voval wondered. "For example, if I ask you for another kiss and you agree to it we might both benefit from the experience - you _did_ say humans enjoy opening themselves to the unknown."  
  
Picard smiled slightly. "An interesting suggestion... I would not object to another kiss." He stepped closer to Voval. "But - let's make sure we do it right this time."  
  
"What do you mean, Captain?"  
  
"Anna only gave me a fairly innocent kiss. There is a much more intimate way of kissing that involves tongues."  
  
Voval's eyes widened. "Tongues? This sounds very intriguing."  
  
Picard could not help but smile. "Alright - just do what I do."

He leaned over to Voval, their lips met, and Picard remained where he was for a few seconds to give Voval time to adjust. Then he slowly opened his mouth while Voval did the same - and then their tongues met and the kiss deepened. Voval groaned in surprise and Picard found himself putting his hands on the ambassador's firm butt while the crystal behind them began to emit a warm and gentle glow, as if to give its silent approval to what was happening right in front of it.


End file.
